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The Who Madison Square Garden

Four black and white photographs of The Who band members (Roger Daltry, Pete Townshend, John Entwhistle, and Kenney Jones) within white circles in the corners of a square image of the Union Jack, surrounded by capitalized black text on a white background.

In 1979, the English rock band The Who played five sold out nights at Madison Square Garden in New York on September 13-14 and 16-18. This was their first U.S. show after the death of drummer, Keith Moon, and served to introduce new drummer Kenny Jones. The New York Times reported after their first show, that “The Who have remained a superb performing band throughout their long and varied recording career, and it was this facet of the group that a packed Madison Square Garden celebrated Thursday night.”

The band was formed by singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, guitarist John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon and became known for their representation of the auto-destructive art movement of the time by destroying guitars and drums on stage. Since their inception the group has sold hundreds of millions of albums. Their fourth album in 1969, Tommy, was made into a film in 1975 and Townshend was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.